Album · 2008

Diesel Hymns

Twenty years of receipt-pad verses, cut live in a friend's converted garage outside Amarillo.

Tracks

1. Diesel and DaylightThis is the first thing I ever wrote down on a receipt pad, two in the morning with the coffee gone cold. It felt right to open the record where the road started for me.heartland rock, road song3:45
2. Mile Marker Nine-FortyI really did leave a coffee on the roof and watch it sail off past a Texaco sign. Sometimes the funniest thing on a long drive is your own stupidity.heartland rock, truck-stop rock3:24
3. Dust on the JukeboxEvery roadhouse I ever stopped in had a jukebox gathering dust after last call. I wanted the song to sound like that empty room.honky-tonk, outlaw country4:48
4. Last Gas for Eighty MilesEighty miles of nothing and a needle on E will teach you faith faster than any sermon. The big chorus is for everybody who ever pushed their luck out there.heartland rock, anthem4:53
5. Borrowed BootsBefore the truck I was a kid with a thumb out and one good pair of boots. This one's about being young and broke and sure the next town would fix it.roots rock, storyteller4:22
6. Old Dog in the Passenger SeatMy old dog rode shotgun for eleven years and never once complained about my singing. He gets a song because he earned it.folk rock, porch song4:15
7. Hold the Wheel, BrotherMy brother and I split a night drive once and said more in those hours than in ten years of holidays. I kept the chorus big because that night felt big.heartland rock, power ballad4:02
8. Radio Silence at Mile Two-TwelveThere's a stretch where the radio just dies and you have to sing for yourself. That's where I learned to write songs.slow burn, gospel rock3:30
9. Night Shift at the Weigh StationThe scale house hums all night and the man inside has a thermos and a story. I tried to write his side of the window.heartland rock, night-shift ballad4:00
10. Tailgate Down in TucumcariDropped the tailgate in Tucumcari and watched the neon come on, and I knew I had my closer. It's the slow hymn I still end the show with.hymn rock, americana4:04

Liner notes

I wrote most of these on the backs of fuel receipts with a pen that kept dying in the cold. My buddy had a garage with a drum kit, an old Hammond, and a space heater that smelled like burning toast, and we cut the whole thing in three nights with the door cracked for air. I burned a few hundred copies and left them on truck stop counters from Amarillo to Barstow. I never thought anyone would hear them past the state line.

Dusty Calloway